Filmming Remember to Smile

Well yesterday we filmed our final Straight 8 entry, "Remember to Smile", Written by Laura Arnott and directed by Laura Arnott and Katy Burns. Film and Theatre director Darren Bolton supervised the shoot, along with crew supervisor Adam Kirk with myself producing. Sophie Backhouse played our lead role, and with the range of emotions she sensitively portrayed it was hard to remember that this was her first acting role.Maisy-Rae Millward and Evie Peta Backhouse played the central character at different ages of her life with other performances from Tiger Watkins-Bailey, Maidie Deighton and Jessica Barker, with our Executive Producer and Youth and Community Arts coordinator, Nicola Dixon taking a guest role.

The films now go to the Straight 8 competition organisers for developing and judging, so the first time we will get to see the film is at the premiere on July 9th!

Here's a few photos from the shoot:

 Samuel Burrows on camera. Behind him, crew supervisor, Adam Kirk offers guidance during one of the tricky handheld shots in the film.

80s children. Maidie Deighton and Tiger Watkins-Bailey dressed in 80s gear by wardrobe supervisor Emma Renhard and assistant Kimberley Scott.

Directing supervisor Dannen Bolton discussing a scene with Laura and Katy.

Filmming Going Up

Behind the scenes stills from our second film, "Going Up", written by Harvey Griffin and Sam Pratt, Directed by Harvey Griffin. Filming these in one day is not easy and our young crew did themselves, and us, proud working in demanding circumstances on a very long day. Especially for our two lead actors, Mathew Oldreive and Francesca Jackson, who heroically contented with the smells of festering cream and a crammed crew in a lift.... for five hours... it was quite an achievement! Of course we had a lot of fun in the process too. Here's a snapshot. We'll post fresh pictures with words from the director soon.

From lef to right: Francesca Jackson, Mathew Oldreive, Shaun Schwegler (with reflector) and director, Harvey Griffin.

Harvey Griffin cheking a shot, with camera opperator Sam Burrows with Directing Supervisor, Madeliene Frost.

Crew supervisor, Adam Kirk checks a shot.

Trapped in the lift - Madeliene Frost talks through a scene (seperated by a wall of glass!) with Mathew and Francesca.

All in a days work!

Mathew Oldreive and Francesca Jackson in the lift.

On location with "Man from the Moon"

More pictures from the making of "Man in the Moon", and a few words from the Hannah Turner, the films young writer/director.Hannah Turner (Writer,Director) 

On set: Alec Clark, (Man in the Moon) Hannah Turner, Director; Madeliene Frost. Supervising Director and Sam Green, Crew

Producer David Bunting talking through a scene with the Man from the Moon, Alac Clark.

Shaun Schwegler filming on Super 8, with Adam Kirk, Crew supervisor, filming digital video assist.

David Bunting, Producer talks through a shot with Shaun on camera. Director Hannah Turner is in the red jumper.

The day of the filming was great! It was a long, cold day that tested the best of us but it was all worth it to see all of the ideas come together to make one brilliant film. The cast and crew were all excellent and co-operative and easy to work with. I found the process very interesting and I have learnt a lot from the entire film course.

Man in the Moon in the can!

On Saturday we filmed our first short film, Hannah Turner's "Man in the Moon". All the live action is now in the can, with just one animation shot and final credits ready to film.

Shooting Man in the Moon on film, it felt only fitting that the production stills were also captured on film as well, so we will post most of the location stills in a few days, once we have them developed.

In the meantime, here's  a few pictures of last last week's progress.

On Thursday we welcomed director Madeline Frost from the Lawance Baltley Theatre in Huddesfield, who worked with our cast.

Emma Renhard and a couple of her students from Yorkshire coast college helped provide the films Victorian and romantic and magical themes with beautiful costumes. Here Josh Robert Darby and Jessica Perryman, pose for a Victian photograph as the Young Man in the Moon and his wife.

As well as playing the love interest, Jessica Perryman also helped with the films magical animation scenes, something as a professional animator, I had a lot of fun guiding. 

There's still plenty to do on "Man from the Moon", but today we started work on "Remember to Smile", which we film in a couple of weeks. Professional actor, Paula Henstock travelled over to Harrogate to provide the voice track for the films central character.

Paula, who is busy rehersing with Madeliene for a writing festival at Lawence Batley Theatre later this month, gave a beautifully tender reading of the films dialogue track. After a long and cold location shoot yesterday, recording dialogue in the comfort of my own home with coffee to hand felt a real treat!